John Keble
29 March
It is said that a sermon, given in Oxford in 1833, by John Keble, ignited, the Oxford Movement. He was already a poet. But I am writing this post in some fear, because there have been people in my nation who may be asked to answer for facebook posts that offend the progressive, or face re-education. John Keble was already a known poet, and had his parish. But he was drawn into the controversies of his time, calling above all that we acknowledge, from the highest to the lowest, that Christ is King. This is now highly offensive: some may even call it hate speech. Overnight, I recieved this email from Andrew Torba, who notes that the regulators in the UK are trying to regulate all speech.
We stand at a critical juncture, facing a battle that transcends Gab itself—it is a fight for the very soul of free speech in the digital age. The government of the United Kingdom, wielding the controversial Online Safety Act 2023, has issued a direct ultimatum, launching a blatant assault on the principles of open discourse that define our community. They demand that Gab submit to their stringent censorship regime, threatening exorbitant fines potentially reaching £18 million or a crippling 10% of our global revenue if we refuse to bow to their demands.
Let us be clear: this is not about ensuring online “safety” as they claim; it is a thinly veiled attempt to exert absolute control over online expression, using ambiguous and undefined “hate speech” provisions as a weapon to silence dissent, criminalize unpopular opinions, and ultimately extinguish your fundamental right to speak freely and openly.
We unequivocally refuse to comply with these tyrannical demands. We will not pay one cent. Gab is, and always will be, a bastion for free speech, headquartered in the United States and operating under the protections of the First Amendment. Our legal team has already delivered a firm response to the UK authorities, asserting our position that Gab operates outside their jurisdiction and will not be implementing their censorship mandates.
Now, I am not British, nor American. But when the authorities started interfering with the Anglican Church (that is, the established church) after England and Scotland united with Ireland, he spoke out. Regardless of the cost, and regardless of the risk.
John Keble
Grant, O God, that in all time of our testing we may know your presence and obey your will, that, following the example of your servant John Keble, we may accomplish with integrity and courage what you give us to do and endure what you give us to bear; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Psalm 97
On the holy mountain stands the city he has founded; * the Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. Glorious things are spoken of you, *O city of our God. I count Egypt and Babylon among those who know me; * behold Philistia, Tyre, and Ethiopia: in Zion were they born.
Of Zion it shall be said, “Everyone was born in her, * and the Most High himself shall sustain her.” The Lord will record as he enrolls the peoples, * “These also were born there.”
The singers and the dancers will say, “All my fresh springs are in you.”
The plan of God needs to be repeated. he has placed us in nations. All nations will be called to God: God will account or ascribe those nations the promises of salvation (or Zion). But we need to remain faithful. We cannot become apostate. We cannot fall into the fashions of this time and day. For the policies of the global elite do not consider the health of the family, the health of the nation, but want everyone as atomised economic units. They want a unity of all, and agreement of all, as if any recollection of the work of God is hate, or any questioning is dissent. Keble called this out.
The case is at least possible, of a nation, having for centuries acknowledged, as an essential part of its theory of government, that, as a Christian nation, she is also a part of Christ's Church, and bound, in all her legislation and policy, by the fundamental rules of that Churchthe case is, I say, conceivable, of a government and people, so constituted, deliberately throwing off the restraint, which in many respects such a principle would impose on them, nay, disavowing the principle itself ; and that, on the plea, that other states, as flourishing or more so in regard of wealth and dominion, do well enough without it. Is not this desiring, like the Jews, to have an earthly king over them, when the Lord their God is their King? Is it not saying in other words, 'We will be as the heathen, the families of the countries,' the aliens to the Church of our Redeemer?
The aim of this substack is to encourage us in hard times. Most of the people that are recalled in the lectionary did not have an easy life, and faced challenge and conflict. The church has not, at least in the West, had such a challenge since the Napoleonic reforms in France, or the Bolsheviks. The Soviet system that inherited the Boshevik terror has now been history for three decades. As it has been before, truth is now hate and all dissent is despised by the elites who rule our states. But this will pass.
And scripture states that our nations will be redeemed. Let us end with Keble again, for he was a poet.
Blest are the pure in heart
Blest are the pure in heart,
For they shall see our God;
The secret of the Lord is theirs;
Their soul is Christ’s abode.
The Lord, Who left the heavens
Our life and peace to bring,
To dwell in lowliness with men
Their Pattern and their King.
Still to the lowly soul
He doth Himself impart;
And for His dwelling and His throne
Chooseth the pure in heart.
Lord, we Thy presence seek;
May ours this blessing be;
Give us a pure and lowly heart,
A temple meet for Thee.